Bettman, Brodeur, O’Ree top 2018 Hall Of Fame class

Willie O’Ree didn’t know he had broken the NHL’s color barrier when he made his debut in 1958. Martin Brodeur couldn’t see the three Stanley Cup titles and jawdropping career ahead when he played his first game in goal for the New Jersey Devils in 1992 and, a year later, Gary Bettman didn’t know he would end up growing the league by leaps and bounds over the next 25 years as its commissioner.

All three will go into the Hockey Hall of Fame together as the headliners of a trailblazing class of 2018 that also includes diminutive forward Martin St. Louis, fourtime goldmedalwinning Canadian women’s national team star Jayna Hefford and Russian Alexander Yakushev.

O’Ree was the first black player in the NHL, Bettman has overseen the league’s expansion into a multibilliondollar industry and Brodeur piled up the most wins and shutouts of any goaltender in NHL history.

“This is an exciting class to be around because everyone has tried to take their game to the next level,” Bettman said Tuesday. “I really wasn’t focused on whether this was happening now; I was really focused on whether Willie O’Ree was going to be selected because that to me was a very important act for the Hall to take.”

Bettman has been commissioner since 1993, during which time the NHL has expanded its footprint across North America and increased from 24 to 31 teams. In that time, the league has gone from a $437 million business to one with almost $5 billion in revenue. It’s been an occasionally bruising ride, with three work stoppages, including one that canceled the entire 200405 season and led to the salary cap. But Bettman has been nothing if not a strong leader, and alltime great Wayne Gretzky said the efforts to help each club compete have made the game stronger.

Brodeur lifted the Stanley Cup three times with the Devils between 1995 and 2003. He leads all goalies with 691 wins and 125 shutouts in 1,266 regularseason games with the Devils and St. Louis Blues, and he won the Vezina Trophy four times. He won 113 playoff games and had a 2.02 postseason goalsagainst average. Brodeur also scored two regularseason goals and another in the playoffs — more than any other goalie.

The Montreal native was the last real standup goaltender as the position moved almost exclusively to the butterfly technique, and his puckhandling prowess led the NHL to institute the trapezoid behind the net as a way to increase scoring.

“You play your whole career and you don’t expect to get this phone call, but when it does, it definitely does feel pretty good,” said Brodeur, the Blues assistant GM who was sitting alongside Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson at prospect camp in St. Louis when he got the news. “I want to thank the committee for putting me on so early.”

While Brodeur and St. Louis were firstballot selections, O’Ree had been waiting decades for this honor since making history at the Montreal Forum on Jan. 18, 1958, with the Boston Bruins. He was 32.

A native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, in Eastern Canada, O’Ree finished with four goals and 10 assists in 45 NHL games during the 195758 and 196061 seasons despite being 95 percent blind in his right eye.

O’Ree was the first black player in the NHL but he will be the third inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr and Canadian women’s national team captain Angela James.